Saturday, February 12, 2011

Embracing My Imperfect Layouts

I just started "Embrace Imperfection," a free class from Big Picture Classes with Karen Grunberg. It's all about getting rid of that voice in our heads telling us how to make "perfect" scrapbook pages, and just move on with making pages. Too often that voice prevents us from making pages that are true to our own style and story, or hinders us from making a page at all, because we are trying to do what we imagine is the "perfect page." While I fully believe there is no such thing as a perfect page, sometimes I can't help getting slowed down by that nagging voice.

Her thoughts and the comments on the class message boards got me thinking about what I like and don't like about my pages. I have a few layouts that I have made mistakes on or wish I'd done differently, or whatever. But the story is still there, and life's too short to worry about doing pages over. I also console myself with the thought that it's unlikely my two sons are going to look through the albums and ever consider my poor choices of patterned paper, messy handwriting (still neat enough to read), crooked edges, out-dated embellishments, or whatever gets into my head about why a page is not perfect.

So here are a few perfectly imperfect layouts that I love and should do more frequently....

April '09
April 09
I love the idea of the photo a day projects, though I'd never manage to keep up with a full 365 days. Instead, I have done a few month-long versions and I really enjoy them. This is one of my most favorite layouts in all my albums. I like the variety of photos/stories that are captured here -- the mundane like my cube at work and my teapot and mug; a trip to the zoo that didn't get scrapped any place else yet; early spring flowers in our yard; and the random interests of my sons at that time -- garden hoses, umbrellas and popsicles. This captured a number of stories that might not have been documented otherwise and also provided a stash of photos to inspire individual layouts of their own.

Love Note
love note
So many reasons to love this layout -- the sentiment of course and getting to use pink in the mass of boy-color pages. But as a layout, I like that it preserves a bit of everyday real life (aka the bits of paper that are collected all over my house). I like that I didn't include a photo and focused just on the note, and have started doing this more often with other bits of paper.


Bookshelves
bookshelves
I like to write. Words come easily for me. I often have trouble keeping my journaling short. But sometimes a quote says it all, in far fewer words. I could write volumes on my love of books, but this quote from Anna Quindlen sums up my thoughts perfectly and more succinctly than I could. With these 2 photos, you get a snippet of the bookcases in our home and a sample of the titles. The best part: this layout took me about 30 minutes to make!

When I look through my albums,  I usually end up feeling pleased with my work. Sure there's still some nagging from that perpetual inner perfectionist, but seeing the stories, memories and photos all together puts the individual imperfect page into its proper perspective of the "big picture." And I'm looking forward to working on my next bit of imperfection.

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